The NDP Volunteers Leaders' Training was GREAT yesterday. :D HAHA in retrospect, it was pretty amazing how everything fell in place. Since Friday, i have been semi-dreading the Sat full-day training because
1) i feel damn sleep-deprived especially after the Mon-Thurs RGPS 7.30am stint.
2) i was feeling quite sian because Liwen didnt choose the Leaders thing and i would be going to the training "alone"
3) the commitment for this NDP thing would be EVERY SATURDAY from now on, until Aug 9.
4) Friday was a really bad day in office, so my mood was like -10.

So on Saturday morning, i just went through the motions - waking up, taking my dad's car to Outram Park MRT, slept all the way to Hougang MRT, then only when i was waiting for the bus and spying another girl who was dressed similarly in jeans and black t-shirt, that i got a more sobering reminder that "Omg i'm really going for this." In retrospect, i was surprisingly aware of how and what i was feeling/thinking, and now i am marveling at myself and at how things turned out.

Chronologically, hopefully:
ONE -
When i was at Hougang bus interchange waiting for the bus, i managed to log on to wireless@sg and tweeted probably the Most Fateful Tweet of the Year.

That girl was listening to her mp3 on those big headphones, and i was listening to mine, and i didnt get a good look at her face. I wasnt really interested actually - at that moment i was caught between should i say hi to her, and will she say hi to me? And then the bus came. She boarded first and took the standing area, i walked past her without making eye contact (it wasnt intentional) and sat at the back. Then counted the stops, and as the bus approached the stop, i see her moving towards the door. We alighted almost at the same time.

Then saw a tall guy wearing a red shirt and holding a sign that says "NDP TRAINING WORKSHOP -> THIS WAY" and the girl was walking towards him, i was a few steps behind, then i was thinking "SHOULDISAYHI SHOULDISAYHI!?" and i said "Hi! Are you," then she turned around and i saw her face.

And we stared at each other for 2 seconds.

"WENQI!!"
"SARAH!?!?"

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH omg that moment was, classic. In the few seconds after my brain registered SARAH-AUNT JEN TUITION MATE-OMG SHE'S GONNA BE AN NDP USHER TOO-OMGOMGOMG I HAVE A FRIEND!! my mood totally jumped from 0 to +10. :D I haven seen her since what, Sec4. So along the way to Ci Yuan Pavilion (THE VENUE WAS ONE OF THOSE NO-FOOTBALL-ALLOWED MULTI-PURPOSE PAVILION SITUATED IN THE MIDDLE OF HDB FLATS) we somewhat caught up with each other, and my mood was steadily climbing +++

Found out that
1) She's currently in Ngee Ann Poly doing Business - Marketing (er not sure of the exact course name though)
2) She was in NDP ushering last year!! And so this year she decided to try for a Leader position and the rest of the story follows

After we signed in and registered, we found out we were both coincidentally allocated to the same group - Group 5.

TWO -
Group 5 turned out to be really, the best thing that i could ask for.

Split Second Skepticism -
shit, will my group suck?
Ok nevermind at least i have Sarah with me.
I sure hope the group doenst suck...
Ok they look friendly (they were chatting with each other...)
Ok let's sit down, say hi...

Then Sarah said "EH! MAURICE. YOU LOOK FAMILIAR. WERE YOU AN USHER LAST YEAR?!" and Maurice said "EH! YES! I REMEMBER YOU!" and then it started. HAHAHAHA it was really pretty amazingly smooth-sailing. Oh yah backtrack a bit - after we registered, we were given markers and masking tape to make a nametag for ourselves, and yes it's really very useful.

Group 5 had 7 of us, + Tingwei (who was the Planning Comm person attached to each group)
WHO ALSO TURNED OUT TO BE XINLI'S EX HANDBELLS-CCAMATE FROM SCGS HAHAHA WHAT A SMALL WORLD!? I think she's going to NTU.

Maurice was the only guy, actually we were supposed to have 12 people but 5 didnt turn up, so we ended up being one of the smallest groups. The first thing about him that i got to know, was that the button of his jeans just fell off, and coincidentally he didnt wear a belt that morning. And i lent him a carabiner to hold his pants. WHICH, BY THE WAY, I REALIZED HE DIDNT RETURN ME :| HAHA. Anyway he has interesting hair, longer than mine, and from his fb page, he's quite a good guitar/keyboard player. Nice.

Out of 7 of us, 5 are/was from Ngee Ann Poly. During the first round of self-intro, the whooping and escalating enthusiasm at finding fellow schoolmates, was amazing.

The other one who wasnt from NP, Mui Teng from NYJC, very coincidentally took up a part time admin job in NP's Admin Office, so she became sorta from NP. HAHAHA which leaves only me. But the atmosphere was still good and cool because it was like
Me: Ok so i was from HC...
Them: OOH BUKIT TIMAH. SAME AREA SAME AREA WOOOOO!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA it was really damn funny.

So Mui Teng is heading for NUS Business, and the NP graduate Huimei, is going NUS for FASS, which will make us future faculty-mates! AND THE BEST PART WAS.

We realized each other are from SISGCO.

AHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA MY GOODNESS, WHAT WERE THE ODDS MAN. And since we didnt find any other GCOs from the other groups, it's pretty amazing that out of what, 60+ of us, 2 of us are SISGCOs, and 2 of us end up in the same group. And the opportunity of mentioning SISGCO was quite serendipitous, i cant even remember what exactly. I think she said she was leaving early, coz she's working/going for Aaron's concert and then i just !!!
Me: *points at her* OMG YOU'RE SIS GCO!??!!
Huimei: OMG NO WONDER YOU LOOK SO FAMILIAR!!!

HAHAHAHAHA.

Then Carol - a 17-year-old NP Tourism year-1 student. Who lives in BOON LAY and was from XINGNAN PRIMARY (which was the primary school right next to where i used to stay after i was born-8 years old) and went on to HUAYI SECONDARY.

I get very excited when i get to know people who live in Jurong. Especially when i get to know them in places in Hougang, and get to know them even better, when we are on our long arduous way home back to the west of Singapore.

Then Shermaine - a 18-year-old NP Business (once again, i dunno the exact course name) year-2 student, who like me, wasnt sure what she was doing at this Leaders' Training. Maurice and Sarah did NDP08 before, Muiteng did Chingay, Carol was very actively involved in doing random events since her councillor days in HYSS (i found out afterwards, on our long MRT way home together) and Shermaine and i seem like the ones who ticked all 3 - Leader, VIP Usher, General Usher - on the application form when we submitted.

The interesting thing about Shermaine is, believe it or not, she was uncannily resemblant of (for lack of better association) HC/Gwen's Shermaine. HAHAHA seriously, the way she speak - fast&furious&funny (mainly because of the first 2 attributes), her hairstyle, and the feel. And i cant even say she's like Shermaine on a good mood day, because i mean she = NDP Shermaine and Shermaine = Gwen's Shermaine. HAHA amazing.

Ok the greatest diff is that she's a softballer, and then found out she knows Monkey, and quite a lot of NY/HC softballers. HAHAHAHA! SMALL WORLD, REALLY. Maybe just Singapore.

THREE -
I was rather impressed with the day's activities and programs. Every activity had a sound and reasonable purpose, and everything was well-planned, though as we all know, and forgivably so, sometimes things dont go according to plan. And they will ask this question at the end of every game - How is this relevant to NDP?

We started with usual ice-breakers, though i haven played some of them before. 1 was Squirrels&Trees (i think) and the other was this money-value thing, like girls are assigned $0.37 and guys $0.52 (ok let's not start on gender inequality) and the Game IC would shout a value and we're supposed to form groups that correspond. I got eliminated at the first round, because there were a lot more girls than guys and the first value was $0.89. HAHAHA. The forfeit was the typical Chicken Dance, which was done painlessly and easily.

Afterwards we had 3 station games, and we had 6 groups in total, so at every station it would be a mini match between 2 groups.
1) Poison Lake - cards labelled A-L and 1-13, then 2 groups to play at the same time. THE A-L AND 1-13 CROSS EACH OTHER HAHAHAHA.
Each group has to link up and hold hands throughout, and there's supposed to be 2 feet on each card at any time, except for the first and last person. THIS GAME WAS THE BEST HAHAHAHA. And halfway through, a new rule was imposed - no talking.
The moral of the game was to learn the importance of communication, and teamwork. It may not sound like much when i write it like that, but at that moment i was really impressed because i realized the efforts and thought that the Planning Comm went through to do all this.

2) Inhuman Knot. Ok this sounds lame. But this had the most learning points and i also think this is one of the "smartest" games from the executing person's pov.
Cotton twine was laid on the ground, and our group had 8 people (including Tingwei) so each person to hold 1 end of the twine, so our group took 4 strings. Within 50s, holding on to 1 end of the twine and not letting go, we're supposed to make the biggest knot possible. So we crossed over each other, stepped above and went below the knot, went round and round, etcetc.
At the end of 50s, we had a proud mess of twine. Then we were told to switch over, and untangle the other group's twine.

This is where it gets interesting.

HAHAHA at the "first stage", we made a bigger knot than the other group. So at the "second stage", we managed to undo theirs within 1 minute, and they undid ours in 4 minutes.

The moral of the game was - it takes only 50s to make the knot, but 4 minutes to untie. Aah...

And i mean this is the "smartest" game for the facils, because at the end of it, after doing the knot and untying, the game is ready to be played by the next 2 groups, with almost zero work for the facils in resetting the game.

3) er i forgot what it's called. Something Caterpillar.
Whole group line up with balloons kiap-ed in between the torsos, hands on shoulders of person in front, and alternate people to be blindfolded. Game Cards with names of respective group members and also Bonus cards (eg can remove blindfold, etc) were scattered around, and only blindfolded people are allowed to pick up the cards. So 2 groups hobble around, those not-blindfolded will try to give good clear instructions, those blindfolded will trust and follow instructions, and when picking up the cards from the ground, the whole group has to squat and stand together, to keep the balloons in between each other.

Ok i think i'm sorta weaved in the moral of the game in there.

All the station games were played in good fun, there werent any real competition, in fact for Inhuman Knot, our 2 groups apparently finished the fastest out of the others, so we all sat down, together with the Game ICs, and did self-intro + 1 fun fact about yourself, to know more people and just to boost the cohesiveness of the whole group of us volunteers.

After this was lunch, where our group trooped to Macs (AIRCONNN) and it was a good bonding session over lunch. :D

FOUR -
The last activity of the day, which i think was also the best and most unexpected, was that we were supposed to do a giant DOMINOES SET-UP. LIKE THOSE THAT WERE SHOWN ON TV A FEW YEARS BACK. HAHAHAHAHA it was a real challenging whoa-surprise. Each group was given a theme (ours was RACE. There were others like NATION, RELIGION, LANGUAGE, PROSPERITY, etc) and a box. Inside the box were wooden domino blocks in various colours, plus Stairs, Bells, various contraptions to enhance the dominoes thing.

First we were given 30minutes to plan our design. Then 1h 30minutes to set up. HAHAHA it was crazy. But interesting nonetheless.

Initially we concentrated on our own design, improving and building on previous ideas.
Then we were given new instructions, to link up to the 2 neighbouring groups.
Then, we were told that NATION, which was given the prime center spot in the middle of the area (ah, we should have guessed), will link to everyone else, and NATION is supposed to set off our cascade.
So the final thing was - NATION will link to us, and we're supposed to form links to the 2 adjacent groups next to us as well. The whole set-up was in this circular shape, with NATION right in the middle.

The learning points for this are obvious, i'll just highlight one (and i think this is also the one that the Planning Comm intends as the highest priority one) which is that THE PROCESS IS GREATER THAN THE OUTCOME. Which is totally true.

We were supposed to "finish" by 4.30pm. But if you have had any experience dealing with this Dominoes thing, you will know they fall easily. And when they're set up in a cascading chain, intending to form a really nice picture at the end, it's catastrophic when the cascade starts falling when they werent supposed to. We had countless "accidents", punctuated with sudden screams and people falling down on the middle of the chain to stop the cascade. We finally only "started" the cascade officially, at about 5.30pm. Within minutes everything was down already. But it was gratifying watching it happen in front of my eyes, and hearing the TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT falling of the dominoes.

REALLY GOOD TEAM BONDING EXERCISE. And amazingly, we worked really well with almost ZERO conflicts/hostile disagreements/losing of tempers/minds/marbles. AMAZING...

OOH ok i see Huimei has uploaded photos. :) Credits to her.

NATION. Cant really tell their design yet, but just a picture to see how the scene/situation was like yesterday. :)

Another one. Haha if you noticed, this picture was taken after the first one.. They've developed/set up more of their design in this picture.

Dont know if you can tell, but this one says NDP09. It was really nice when it fell. :D

Actually i applaud the Planning Comm for coming up with this idea and also including all the random not-easy-to-use contraptions, for people like us with zero experience in Dominoes Building. So we ended up using all this weird funny things as decorations. And this chain is completely static. HAHAHAHA.

After an "accident". Rescue Team hard at work. HAHA the camaraderie was rather impressive too, because random people from the other groups are also going over, automatically, to wherever that needs people to help.

GROUP 5! Omg i realized Maurice (guy first from right) LOOKS LIKE JJ LIN?!? HAHAHAHAHAHA. And i look scarily like my sister in this pic. Probably because of the pinned-up fringe.
But anyway, you probably cant tell, but our "design" is this 4 differently-coloured man-figures, under 1 roof, signifying the harmonious cooperation among the 4 main races in Singapore. HAHA we won the comment of "... SIMPLE, YET ARTISTIC..." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH SERIOUSLY?!

Damn fun, nonetheless.

An amazing amazing AMAZING change of events and mindset and mood, and i am quite looking forward to the next meeting! :D

So, moral of this story of my experience on Saturday - sometimes things really do go well. :) HAHAHA!